Google's Chrome iOS app captures 1.4% of browser market

Fresh data released on Tuesday shows Google's recently-released iOS version of its Chrome web browser has been adopted by some 1.4 percent of iDevice users following its launch in late June.

Despite only being on the market for less than a month, Chrome has garnered 1.4 percent of the iOS mobile browser market though the metric pales in comparison to the 13 percent share of iDevice owners using other third party apps, notes TechCrunch. Leading the pack is Apple's built-in Safari which holds a dominating 85.7 percent marketshare.

Tuesday's usage data comes from the new Chrome iOS Adoption Tracker, a constantly-updated near real time tool created by the analytics arm of mobile advertising firm Chitika.

The highly-anticipated Chrome for iOS debuted to much fanfare as the speed and device integration enjoyed by desktop and Android users was expected to be ported for Apple's iDevices. It was announced during Google I/O in June that the browser is now the most popular in the world and boasted 310 million active users prior to launching on iOS.

Source: Chitika Labs

Chrome is seen as the first legitimate contender to Apple's Safari, the default software that comes with iOS and the browser apps throw to to when clicking on a link. While users can surf the web through other dedicated internet apps or through integrated browsers like 1Password's bare-bones offering, most users tend to gravitate toward Apple's non-deletable Safari.

Although Google's attempt saw success when it was first released iOS App Store download numbers have declined to what Chitika calls "moderate levels of growth."

Some pundits note that Chrome for iOS is not a true representation of the browser, even for a mobile version, as Apple's sandboxing rules don't allow the use of Google's speedy JavaScript rendering engine meaning that the app is not as fast as its Android counterpart. What is somewhat retained from other versions are features like multi-device syncing, unlimited tabs with unique tab switching capabilities and a revamped on-screen keyboard though everything must run within Apple's third-party app guidelines.